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Does the past influence the present? And if so how much does it affect the present? More research has been done concerning past life experiences and present day maladies such as strange irrational phobias that do not seem to be centered in any present day experience. I have seen reference to psychologists doing past life regression or hypnosis to discover possible roots for unusual fears or concerns. And I think this effort is not wasted time. I have an extreme dislike for walking in the mud to the point where I will walk around it or completely avoid it by not continuing on a pathway. I had somewhat assumed that this attitude was me just being fussy about my clothes, but the origins of this dislike goes to a situation in a past life where I had to walk into the mud to retrieve proof of victories.

As Manfred I had to prove at times that a victory was mine, which meant either capturing (or saving from the ground troops) the pilot and or getting a piece of the downed plane. Often the poor pilot would land or crash in some god forsaken area like No Man’s Land, which was an area void of vegetation and any kind of life. The ground was turned and churned into a thick muck littered with war materials some of which would be corpses of men and animals. An unpleasant experience of sinking into the wet soil that would have sickening crunches that one could never know was a tree branch or a bone. The smell was often moldy or swampy and then occasionally acrid with the stench of flesh rotting. And to make matters worse, it seemed as if the Earth did not want to allow one to proceed or escape from its clutches as if it wanted to make you a part of the loathsome vastness of No Man’s Land.

It brings a grimace to my face just thinking about it. And generally, once you arrived at your destination, you would find the remains of another soldier much like yourself in a mangled condition. It was hard to force that image and reality away to be able to do what must be done. And yes, sometimes we found living pilots and observers in their wrecked planes. If they were really lucky, then they were not too injured and could be escorted back to the airbase. In more difficult situations, one might find themselves having to decide if euthanasia was the best way to handle a situation. No warrior wants to sit for hours in pain waiting to die. I don’t think I ever had to euthanize any of my aerial victories.

But I digress from the topic at hand, which is does the past affect the present. I think the answer is yes based upon my own experiences. I now know why I react the way I do to mud. And I can respect that reaction even though it may seem a bit irrational for this current lifetime. Understanding how the past can affect the present is very useful whether it is used to treat some sort of so called malady or using experience to find inspiration for a present lifetime.

A common poor landing. For some reason many biplanes were very nose heavy – especially the Tri-Fokker!

I have often wished that I had been able to realize sooner that I had past life memories. I think it would have been an asset during my undergraduate years. I think it would have given me focus and drive, and I would have not wasted so much time on irrelevant things and people. I think my direction in life and strengths would have been much clearer and would have acted as a guide for me to explore what I could do with the present. I can look back and see the clues were there but I was ignoring them because of the current popular social norms concerning reincarnation. At least now I am more mature and not so easily a victim of other peoples’ values and I can enjoy and benefit from being me.

Typical devastation of the landscape after a battle. No trees, mud, stagnant water, no animals, no vegetation, corpses, and left over war materials.